Kazakhstani school student Daujan Beketov took second place at the International AI Olympiad

Dauezhan Beketov, a school student from Kazakhstan, took second place in the overall standings of the third International Olympiad on Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) 2026, which took place in Astana from August 2 to 8. The competition, held for the first time in Central Asia, brought together approximately 500 participants, mentors, and jury members from 106 countries.

How the Olympiad unfolded

Over the course of a week, students solved practical problems in machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and other applied areas of artificial intelligence. Alongside the competition, an educational, scientific, and cultural program was held.

A separate stage was the Team Challenge, where international teams collaboratively solved an applied problem using artificial intelligence technologies. Special nominations were awarded to the teams from New Zealand for the best performance in the robot competition, Hong Kong for the most creative robot design, and Brazil for the best application of AI-native approaches in robotics.

The top three

Artem Gorokhov from Russia won first place in IOAI 2026. Dauezhan Beketov from Kazakhstan took second place, and Shao Zisi from China came in third. Thus, the Kazakh school student entered the top three of the overall winners of the competition, which brought together representatives from more than 100 countries.

Zhaslan Madiev, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan
More than 100 countries and approximately 500 participants are a testament to how global the competition for talent in the field of artificial intelligence has become today. It is especially important for us that an international AI Olympiad of this level was held in Kazakhstan for the first time, and a Kazakh school student entered the top three of the overall winners, taking second place.

We are consistently creating the entire necessary ecosystem in the country: developing computing infrastructure, establishing the International Artificial Intelligence Center Alem.ai, and investing in the training of the next generation of specialists. Our task is to ensure that young Kazakhs not only use artificial intelligence technologies but also create them themselves and can compete with the best specialists in the world.

Source: gov.kz